Monster Train

[NorwegianWolf]

I'm at Covenant 3. What are your favorite clan combinations?
Before increasing Covenant I'm trying to get a win on every clan combination.

 

[anvi]

I like them all but the higher Covenant levels were becoming so brutal I was losing most attempts unless I got really good stuff. I found best to be Stygian and Awoken. I like the Awoken for the tanks and heals, and Stygian for the damage. Theres's some attackers with lots of Multistrike, one of them ended up with about 10 multistrikes But usually I get little totems that boost spell power, do frostbite damage, and reduce spell costs. There's also one that applies Sap to enemies so you don't need so much healing. And later you can combine the totem guys into one of the tank creatures.

I did what you did, unlocked all the clans before increasing Covenant.

 

[anvi]

I think at the higher levels Melting Remnants is essential for the Resin Removal spell which removes all enemy buffs. I had teams doing thousands of damage and they got wiped out because the boss had insane stacks of stealth or lifesteal. So that one spell is awesome. Also there's a 3x Daze spell which is pretty overpowered against bosses. Lots of cool ways to win though.

 

[NorwegianWolf]

One of my favorite things to do is to copy Daze spells and upgrade the with Holdover.

 

[anvi]

Yeah it's strong. I also love the spell that gives your whole row stealth x2. Getting Holdover on stuff like that can seal the deal.

 

[Kabas]

The level of enthusiasm in this thread is pretty infectious i must say.
Wishlisted it.

 

[NorwegianWolf]

If you're not afraid of key stores, most sold keys come from a 2022 Humble Choice subscription. They didn't have region locks, so there is low chance of typical problems associated with keyshops.

 

[Kabas]

So, i got it on steam sale and finally decided to give it a little spin.

Yeah yeah, mobile game graphics. Not as visually pleasing as something like Astrea: The six sided oracles but it's indeed doesn't look that bad in motion.
Already liking it a bit more in terms of mechanics compared to the aforementioned Astrea.
Things feel easy for now but i guess it's because i am still in the introductory run and thus the kiddy gloves are on.

 

[Dickie]

I decided to pick this game up again lately, and I remember why I quit. I'm so bad at it. I have five combos left to chalk up last divinity wins on covenant 25, but I lost 10 runs in a row. I'm stuck on Wurmkin exile (echowright)/Umbra. After that, I'll have Umbra/Wurmkin and Melting Remnant/Wurmkin to do with exiled and normal.

 

[NorwegianWolf]

I can see you hold yourself to high standards. I'm on covenant 6 I think, and I believed some of my runs were pretty good.

 

[Kabas]

I can see you hold yourself to high standards. I'm on covenant 6 I think, and I believed some of my runs were pretty good.

Not really, my first build actually proved to be a poor one after i encountered a multi-attack birdmen who i decided to boost with extra damage for the promise of extra reward.
Me first victory was the next run with the Awoken as the main race and Horned one as allies. Found a nice artifact right at the start that gave me a free random monster each time i summoned my champion. Built my deck around the fact that my high HP but 0 attack champion dealt damage to the enemy each time i casted a heal spell on it, supported from the backline by the multiattack guys whom i boosted with upgrades from shops and whatever random i get from my artifact.
Proved to be good enough, unlocked stygians.
Edit: you weren't talking to me. Sorry, i am blind.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

After the DLC released they added a bunch of much stronger bosses making runs significantly harder. Dipped into the realm of bullshit roguelikes with very niche broken builds being the only viable way to complete runs rather than solid play and deck building carrying you most the way.

 

[NorwegianWolf]

After getting some experience and knowing the possibilities of decks, artifacts, upgrades etc, I haven't encountered a run that wasn't salvageable on low covenant levels (like 0-1). On higher covenant ranks and when you use pact shards, unlucky set of enemies may ruin everything and give a feel of unbalanced, unwinnable mechanics.

 

[Dickie]

After the DLC released they added a bunch of much stronger bosses making runs significantly harder. Dipped into the realm of bullshit roguelikes with very niche broken builds being the only viable way to complete runs rather than solid play and deck building carrying you most the way.

Yeah, I get so many runs on 25 that just walk all over everybody and then the last divinity will just slap me down like I'm nothing. You end up just building your deck towards fighting that one fight.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

After the DLC released they added a bunch of much stronger bosses making runs significantly harder. Dipped into the realm of bullshit roguelikes with very niche broken builds being the only viable way to complete runs rather than solid play and deck building carrying you most the way.

Yeah, I get so many runs on 25 that just walk all over everybody and then the last divinity will just slap me down like I'm nothing. You end up just building your deck towards fighting that one fight.

This is something I wish card games didn't do constantly. It's frustrating knowing only 1% of runs are viable to go all the way and good play doesn't come into it. You need the broken combos to take down the final boss or secret REAL final boss and there's nothing you can do if you don't get it. S

 

[Dickie]

I'm stuck on Wurmkin exile (echowright)/Umbra. After that, I'll have Umbra/Wurmkin and Melting Remnant/Wurmkin to do with exiled and normal.

It turns out I'm just bad with Wurmkin exile/Umbra. After about a dozen losses in a row, I finally won with that combo, and then I was able to win on 25 with all the remaining four permutations with only two losses.

 

[Kabas]

Got a bit busy lately, not many opportunities to play in peace.

I like Umbrals

These two guys can get pretty nasty once they have eaten enough morsels and i get my lifesteal buff on them. Already see plenty of ways how this deck could be improved, it could definitely use more cards that allow me to move my monsters up and down the floors or root my enemies to the floor so they can't escape the 200 damage monstrocity with a lifesteal and trample. Maybe that buff that bestows multi-strike too.
Just entered the fourth covenant.

 

[NorwegianWolf]

I barely ever use floor moving spells, always consider some other spell a better choice. But maybe I make poor choices :D

 

[anvi]

Wow 25, took me a lot of effort but finally made it to 20! I had a long run of no wins too. Changed some ideas. The game was so fun and accommodating at first, I liked being able to win with lots of different ideas. Any decent deck could win. These high Covenent levels I didn't like at first. Lots of ok decks fail now. Only the really best cards get me through. And RNG matters now, some bad luck and it's over. I also had several games where it all went well but the final Divinity thing was brutal and losing at that point is harsh.

But I started to get hooked on beating these levels. I am impressed the game has enough depth to keep me interested. It turned into a slower paced game where I have to think about what I'm doing in battles and have to reload them sometimes to try again. But I like it and it's still fun when I try new deck ideas I haven't done before.

So far the most powerful stuff I have found to get me through the last few levels are:

Spoiler

Melting Remnant seems uber. I always struggled to do enough damage unless I use Little Fade - Eternal Flame, the one that is like 6/1 and becomes 40/1 after it dies. I play it every turn at the front to make sure he dies, and by the time the boss arrives he can be about 700/80 or more. Especially if I get the spell which triggers the extinguish effect without killing it. I used to try making badass creatures with 4 multistrikes and boost their damage somehow, but it doesn't really cut it anymore. I was also hooked on the spells that descend a unit, I would use that on my own units to pack one row with lots of strong creatures. It worked well for a long time especially with the green race's creature that gives everything haste. But even with good luck it still was a major problem doing enough damage. The only thing I've found to really do huge damage, is that little Eternal Flame dude and lots of boosting.

For a while I was using the little elemental that dies and gives your row Stealth. I would get 2 of them and combine the soul of one in the other, so it gives 4 when it dies. And then get Endless on it and play it at the front every turn and make sure it dies, even if I kill it myself. By the time the boss comes I could have 30 stealth on my row and they win without taking a hit. But this whole strategy only works sometimes. If the enemies have a lot of spikes or sweep then stealth doesnt help and they need lots of healing or something.

Reform worked out great for me too, either the one you get to pick or the one that randomly brings something back, it's so powerful because of the small boost. Kill stuff over and over and you can really pump stuff for the final fight. I also like Draff, combine two together and has 2 burnout and 2 multistrike to begin with, gets really strong when boost with lots of reforms.

Lady of the House is cool too. Seems basic at first but give it a multistrike or two and some reforms and it can be huge by the time boss arrives.

I used to take all the shard boosts but I think it increases the difficulty too much. So now I try to only use one or two of those. Usually one sacrifice a creature's soul, and one or two spell boosts. It seems better, less powerful deck but keeping it under 150 or 100 let me win the last few games.

 

[Kabas]

It's hard to describe sometimes how good does it feels when your build just *clicks*.
I decided to go for a hellhorned imp build and got really lucky with artifacts that boost my rage and armor stacks.
The second hellhorned champion has a fun upgrade path that reduces the cost of imps and lets you summon fledging(applies rage to evryone) and welding imp(applies armor to the frontliner) every single turn. Worked really great escpecially with that dude that boosts the effect of every single rage stack.
The thing that made this build trully shine was the Transendimp who repeats every single imp summon effect that was ever applied by ALL of your imps during this fight.
Just look at all of these damage numbers.

Beautiful

 

[NorwegianWolf]

I struggled to run a successful Rage-based Hellhorned team, but I'll have to try again. I like the view of 83 stacks of Rage.

 

[anvi]

I finally beat this sucker, tough at the end! I love this game though, I hope they make another game like this sometime.

 

[NorwegianWolf]

155 hours, finally beat the game on Covenant 25. Also beat the Last Divinity twice.
The variety of possible tactics and winnable combinations is astounding.

 

[anvi]

Nice! It gets really hard in the end eh!

 

[NorwegianWolf]

It's rewarding that every run is winnable and usually only my own incompetence is to blame for defeat, and not some shitty RNG.